Democratic Party Declares Victory in Serbia

President Boris Tadic, leader of the moderate Democratic Party, which supports Serbia's integration into the European Union, is claiming a lead of nearly 10 percent over the far-right Radical Party and its leader Tomislav Nikolic.

The surprise victory, “was enthusiastically welcomed by Serbian liberals and the European Union as evidence that Serbs had chosen economic prosperity and political liberalism over the virulent nationalism of the past,” reports the International Herald Tribune.

However, it remains unclear whether Tadic’s party has gained enough seats in Serbia’s 250-seat parliament to form a coalition government. As a result, Nikolic is calling on other parties to join him in forming a coalition against the Democratic Party.

"Certain political forces who wanted to return Serbia to the '90s are calculating now how to do it regardless of the people's will." Tadic said. "I am warning them not to do that."

The surprising election results come as the political climate in Europe appears to be changing in a variety of ways.

In Italy, for instance, President Silvio Berlusconi’s return, and the election of Rome’s first far-right mayor since World War II, may signal a national shift to the right. Amir Taheri of the New York Post suggests that Italy’s move is representative of a larger, Europe-wide conservative trend that has France and Italy as its forerunners.

As Tadic’s Democratic Party celebrates in the streets, the Radical Party, which is expected to get 77 parliamentary seats, has begun “to woo the Socialist Party, once ruled by Slobodan Milosevic and which has 20 seats, and the nationalist party of outgoing prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, which gained 30 seats,” reports the International Herald Tribune. If Nikolic is successful, the three parties would have a combined 127 seats, enough to govern.

The BBC provides video coverage of the election results. “Until the final results are in, it’s too close to call, so for the moment the pro-European parties are claiming the result as a stunning victory,” according to the report.

The BBC provides reader reactions to the election results on their Web site. “It's a great victory. It's a victory for Europe. It's a victory for all young people in Serbia who need a better life and more options. EU, here we come,” writes a reader identified as Nikola.

The Democratic victory is heartening, but poses “considerable difficulties,” according to an editorial in The Times of London. “In the search for coalition partners, they are faced with a bizarre choice: working either in tandem with the Socialists, the once-dominant party of the late Slobodan Milosevic, or in partnership with the Liberal Democratic Party, whose leader negotiated the deposed strongman's arrest in 2001.”

Italy’s “conservative comeback” may be the start of a Europe-wide movement, writes Amir Taheri of the New York Post. “Coming so soon after the victory of the French right in both presidential and parliamentary elections last year, the Italian right's spectacular comeback may be part of a European trend,” Taheri writes.

The long-anticipated announcement of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia came in February. The United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy were all quick to recognize the new state. But endorsement was not universal. Russia—an ally of Serbia—condemned the move, preventing a unified response by the United Nations Security Council.

Boris Tadic took over the Democratic Party of Serbia after Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in February. He became president after defeating nationalist Tomislav Nikolic. “The 46-year old psychologist has pledged to follow in his predecessor's footsteps in charting a democratic, pro-European, free-market course for Serbia,” according to the BBC.

“Tomislav Nikolic, the hard-line presidential candidate from Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party has undergone a wholesale rebranding. Gone is the fire-breathing rabble-rouser of old––the man who would rant and rave against the West, threaten his political opponents, and generally make a spectacle of himself,” writes Radio Free Europe.